Value of an Internship
My daughter majored in social-work major at Baylor where she was required to have a year-long internship. I was not a big fan of the work without pay program, especially since it entailed commuting 80 miles each way, two or three times per week while gas was over $3 per gallon.
It turns out that several of her coworkers started at that agency as interns when they were students. Over time she grew to like the agency, its programs, and the people she worked with. She worked very closely with her supervisor and seemed to get along great with everybody. Late in the school year, the supervisor took another position at the agency and some conflicts with the new supervisor put into doubt whether there might be an opportunity for this to turn into a full-time paying job.
As graduation approached, and job search was in full-swing, some openings came up at that agency where my daughter was finishing up her internship. She interviewed with folks farther up the food chain than she had been working with directly, and she soon had a job offer for a position she was excited about, with an agency she liked, and with good benefits. The “try it before you buy it” internship paid off for everybody, and provided excellent experience for her.
My daughter has a close friend that is a year younger, and just starting her senior year. She is a writing major and was in need of an internship for her graduation requirements. She doubled-up on internships this summer taking one at a local magazine about our city and another one at the agency my daughter now works for following her successful internship. These provided very different experiences for the budding writer.
At the magazine, she quickly became a published author with her name on the masthead for some short descriptions she wrote about upcoming events. Over the summer, her assignments grew in complexity, and she will have work published with bylines in each issue for the rest of this year. This is building her portfolio of published work, and she has built good relationships at that magazine. There may even be opportunities for her to freelance for them some during the school year.
The writing assignments at the social work agency were more technical writing for brochures and informational material for their clients. This proved challenging as she had to rely on subject matter experts to develop the information that was needed. She thought it was hard work, but got a different taste of writing assignments which she thinks will help her try new approaches in her school work during this final year. This internship did not exist until my daughter suggested it to her managers as a way to develop the brochures she knew they needed. In fact, they had never had a writing internship before, but the “will work for experience” approach of unpaid internships provided a risk-free way for them to try it. They got the brochures prepared and learned to appreciate having a writer “on staff” as other groups within the agency now want their own brochures, too.
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